Appropriate Specs

[hawk1226]

Alright I need some help choosing what specs for my macbook pro. I trust you guys here and i'm not too knowledgable on hardware, so i need your opinions. I do alot of digital art, but thats not the primary purpose of the computer. I'm going to college soon and that is, but i still need a computer that can handle photoshop, illustrator, rendering in c4d. I know i want a macbook pro, while 17" would be nice, i'm going to go with 15" for the portable edge. I just need some help with processor, memory and hard drive upgrades. I want to be able to be working with large files, rendering large images, etc.. and still have a zippy lap top. Which of the those three categories should i consider upgrading. I obviously don't want to upgrade if its not going to be helpful, but if its going to my computer run faster while working then i'm all for it. Thanks for your guys' opinions, let me know.

-Evan

 

[II AndyG33 II]

DEFINITELY get the upgraded base computer
(2.5ghz and 512 V-RAM)
this will make ur rendering and all that much less power consuming
then...
buy it with the stock 2gb RAM from apple
and get a 4gb from crucial

The ram will allow you to render photos while doing other things on your computer...

Hopefully this helps you out :]

make sure u use your student discount!!!

i think itll be $2,299

(a .1ghz upgrade will not help you at all maybe 2% because the two processors have the same l2 cache)

and for the hdd
7200vs5400 is a really discussed topic here on the board
i think its pointless
but u can check it out

 

[hawk1226]

Thanks alot andy, thats really helpful. Anyone else have anything to add or rebuttal?

 

[iToaster]

The speed differene between the two models is really quite negligible, but the 15" 2.5 GHz is a touch faster than it's 2.4 GHz brother. Simply buy the computer unmodified from Apple and buy some more RAM from somebody else (like OtherWorld Computing) and replace it yourself, you'll need a P0 Phillips to do so.

 

[hawk1226]

The speed differene between the two models is really quite negligible, but the 15" 2.5 GHz is a touch faster than it's 2.4 GHz brother. Simply buy the computer unmodified from Apple and buy some more RAM from somebody else (like OtherWorld Computing) and replace it yourself, you'll need a P0 Phillips to do so.

Yeah I'm definently going to go for the ram thanks. As far as the ghz, will they only upgrade that online? As in I couldn't go into the store and get the 2.5 upgraded version? And nothing regarding the hard drive? Not that I thought I needed the $50 dollar upgrade but I'm not sure what it's benefit is?

 

[Montie Da Champ]

you don't need the god damned .1ghz for that much money

just upgrade the ram, thast ALL you need for the c4d rendering.

i can tell you this out of personal experience.

I used to use cinema4d and i was using it on 1gb of ram and i felt like i was going to kill myself. It was literally sluggish rendering a sphere in a small amount of grass with some mats. it ZOOMS on 4gb. i gave up the hobby now but i at least can tell you that you will be FINE. don't waste the extra money on the vram and .1ghz

people have tested the vcard 512vs256 and said it's not worth it, so listen to them.